ALCS NOTES: Astros chafed at allegations of pitch stealing

ALCS NOTES: Astros chafed at allegations of pitch stealing

NEW YORK — Astros ace Justin Verlander and his manager A.J. Hinch had rather pointed messages for the conspiracy theorists of the baseball world prior to Thursday’s Game 4 of the ALCS.

Essentially it was simple, albeit tinged with anger: Paranoia will destroy ya.

With the rainout on Wednesday, the old Astros are stealing signs story was dusted off and fired up leading to questions and heated answers from two of the central figures on the AL West champions.

The Astros, widely considered one of the more innovative management operations in the game, have heard such accusations before. And as Hinch made clear, they have heard enough of the innuendo.

“In reality, it’s a joke,” Hinch said when asked specifically about reports that the Astros were using whistles to signal to their hitters what pitch was coming in Game 1. “But Major League Baseball does a lot to ensure the fairness of the game. There’s people everywhere.

“When I got contacted about some questions about whistling, it made me laugh because it is ridiculous. Had I known that it would take something like that to set off the Yankees, we would have practised it in spring training.”

Verlander was concerned that the chatter diminishes what his teammates have accomplished, dating back to a 2017 World Series title. On Wednesday there were multiple reports that the Astros used whistles or the banging of pipes to signal what they learned from their alleged spying.

“I mean, it sucks for our players because those guys are so talented,” the veteran right-hander said. “So in that aspect, it’s disappointing.

“I understand where the paranoia comes from.”

While adamant his team doesn’t steal pitches — despite whispers around baseball that they have had success doing just that — Hinch made it clear that if a pitcher is tipping off his stuff, that’s fair game.

Astros hitters certainly seemed to have a good idea of what was coming in their decisive Game 5 win over Tampa and in ALCS starts vs. Luis Severino and James Paxton.

“To the Yankees, there’s nothing going on,” Hinch said. “Pitch tipping is a little bit of a different story. If you don’t want us to know the pitch is coming don’t demonstrate that pitch you’re going to throw.

“There’s nothing going on other than the competition on the field. The fact that I had to field the question before a really, really cool game at Yankee Stadium is unfortunate. That will be the last question I answer about pitch tipping or pitch stealing.”

Yankees manager Aaron Boone wasn’t about to accuse his opposition of cheating, but did say there has to be limitations on what a team can do to detect pitch tipping.

“Sure there are boundaries, yeah,” Boone said. “We could have a conversation for days on that. There’s things you’re not allowed to do and things that are perfectly within the context of the game.

BRONX ZOO

Accusations of cheating weren’t the only thing that had Hinch fired up.

The Astros manager was livid that fans in the outfield were throwing objects on the field and in the visitor’s bullpen during Game 3 on Tuesday.

“I went out on the field (because) I wanted the umpires to know that it was becoming a dangerous situation,” Hinch said. “There’s no place for that, both teams will agree. MLB is aware.

“I will pull the team off the field if we get in that situation where bottles are being thrown and it becomes unruly. There’s other ways to support your home team. It would be a very ugly scene for baseball, a very ugly scene for the Yankees if one of our guys was hit by something from the upper deck. Something tragic could happen and nobody wants that.”

BIG TEST FOR BIG MAPLE

Will third time be the charm for Canadian left-hander James Paxton?

When the Yankees traded with Seattle for the starter in the off-season, they were certainly hoping he would be a difference-maker at this time of year.

But in his two post-season starts to date — the first two of his career — the 30-year-old has lasted just 4.2 and 2.1 innings and heading into his scheduled start for Friday’s Game 5 has a 5.14 ERA.

“There’s a higher intensity but overall it’s the same game,” Paxton said when asked on Thursday about the differences between regular and post-season approaches. “It’s just being able to mentally treat it the same way even though there’s that extra intensity and what we’re playing for.

“But ultimately, if you can play the game the same way you did in the regular season, you’re going to have the most success.”

AROUND THE BASES

There is little doubt that the Yankees are going to need some clutch starting performances to help take the series the distance — and with four games in four days needed to do so, it won’t be easy.

But despite all the rave reviews the Astros rotation gets, the Yankees have quietly put together an ERA of 2.29 these playoffs, the third-lowest ERA by an AL team since 1984.

In fact, they’ve allowed four runs or fewer in each of their first games this post season.

• Yankees slugger Giancarlo Stanton gingerly ran the bases prior to Thursday’s game but Boone wasn’t about to put him in the lineup.

“I felt like today was the first day it was probably better,” Boone said of Stanton, who hasn’t played since Game 1 when he suffered a quad injury on an infield single. “I’m not ready to put him in the outfield, especially here, but I feel he’s probably close as a DH option.”

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